1952 M38 Recovery and Restoration

OK boys and girls here goes. I started a new thread for my recovery and build, the recovery actually took place last weekend but I just made a second trip today to get the last piece of the puzzle. So I thought it would be best to have everything here before I started a thread. So 5-11-13 was the Armed Forces parade in Midwest City/Del City Ok. and I had a blast however after getting back home I was called into work. I got off a little after midnight and my recovery was the next day. Thankfully I have a good friend that I want to Thank in all this and that my buddy Phil. He loaned me truck and trailer for the first trip and then made the second trip with me using a second trailer for reasons I'll get into soon. For those of you that know about my engine trouble/replacement this is the same guy who not only loaned me said truck and trailer for that recovery then allowed me to do the replacement in his garage and helped me out on it even when I wasn't there. Outstanding person!!!!

So recovery day: Phil had gotten truck and trailer ready for me to pick up I left him my M715 he hadn't driven it in about a year just after our engine install and he hadn't liked how hard it was to steer with the tires it had on and since I had been bragging about how well the new tires felt to drive he wanted to test it out. He's one of a very short list of people I would trust with my Jeep most of you guys know how that is. Anyhow since I ended up working the night before I got a later start then I wanted but was still at his house by 9am I gave the gear a once over and evidently not as good of an inspection as I should have. About 40 or so miles into the 140 round trip I pulled over cause I thought I heard a safety chain pop off. I got out of the truck and found much to my dismay a blown trailer tire. I had pulled over into an old closed gas station and it just so happens 2 farmers where having a chat and saw my trouble and offered to help. Phil is normally a thorough guy but I guess long hours at his job left his a bit lax in what he should have in his truck. He had no jack, no four way lug wrench, absolutely nothing to aid me in replacing a tire. I made the mistake of thinking he would have those things which he normally did in his truck so I didn't bother to bring mine and while I did have my wife following in our HHR I opened the area where the spare should be only to find it empty.... However the farmers just happened to have a fourway and a block, I drove the trailer onto the block pulled the bad tire off and the tire on the other side so as not to mess up anything. I took a closer look at the tires and from the side walls they all looked in great shape however looking between the tread was a totally different story. The tire on the same side as the blow out looked about ready to go. I'm 30 or so miles from my goal I've got 2 good tires 1 bad tire and one blown tire..... I text the seller and asked him if he had a 4 way and jack he did so I decided to press on. We made it without any mishaps we changed the bad looking tire out for the one I pulled off which looking to be fairly new and loaded the trailer. I headed out down the road and went about 3 miles and decided to check everything out before I went any farther keep in mind the sellers place is out in the middle of no where and I was about to hit one of the only towns on the trip so I thought I better stop and make sure everything was ok. I'm sure glad I did cause the tire I thought was good was good but the valve stem was leaking like crazy I limped into town and was about 500 yards from a gas station when my wife who's trailing me calls my cell thinking the worst I answer and she tells me a strap had come loose. I pulled over again and tighten it down making sure it was secure I looked around at the place I was at and thought I had hit the jack pot. It was one of those side of the road places you always wanna stop but only will if your other half makes you. The guy had signs on every building all gas, oil, tires and all manner of stuff. Surely he has a jack I can put the tire I was worried about back on there and just limp home... He tells me to head over to a "airplane" hanger I call them silver half moon shaped garages with big bay doors on one end. I pull around he opens the door and there in front of me is the tire machine I learned how to work tires on. The man had been injured recently and had almost had his right arm cut off so he couldn't operate it. But I could! I pulled the tire with the bad stem off and he gave me a new stem to put in. and he just happened to have a tire to replace the blown out one. His machine however had a leak in it and I wouldn't break the shredded tire off so he gave me a rim too!!! I gave the man what money I could spare but he would only take $20 since I had done the work myself and he had old tire and rims he didn't mind the price. So I now have 3 good tires and only 1 I was concerned about but after having so much trouble I was taking it more then careful only doing about 40mph unless I was coasting down a hill. I was 20 miles from home and the tire I was worried about blew going up a rather steep hill. There was a 4 way in the jeep I had just bought so I wasn't worried there and I used a combat rim as a block to drive the trailer over to get it off, at this point I had had enough. I yanked the tire off and headed back down the road not caring about the other tire still being on there. I was exhausted and I still had to unload everything with only a little help from my son once I got it home. However that was the last mishap of the day. I dropped everything off and took stock (and pix) of everything I had.

My second trip happened today and as the tire shop hasn't had any tires of the size needed come in that arn't new I haven't replaced the blown out tire yet but since I'm friends with the tire shop owner he is gonna call me as soon as he gets one in. However that puts that trailer out. I had planned on taking the M715 for the trip up till the night before when I asked Phil to borrow his come along. He offered to go with me and to use his "lawn mower" trailer which is 4"x8" I figured it would be tight but the frame should fit and it did. We made the second trip without any problems what so ever. So enough of my ramblings here are the recovery pix!!!!

more...

As you can see I've got a pretty wide era of parts, most of the M38 is there. The other stuff however is a bit of a mess. There are 2 MB tubs one however the front section was cut off and mated with a CJ2A front I believe judging by the embossed "Willy's" on the windshield and lack of glove box not to mention the huge welds lol. The front fender, grill and hood pic the fenders and hood are MB however I think the grill is CJ3A. The hood matches the data plate being a U.S.M.C Radio Recon Car. It was on the full Willy's MB tub however that tub is a rusted out mess I'm not sure I want to deal with. However since I plan to do the M38 first I have more then enough time to think about it. I haven't worked out a parts list yet of what I need but I plan to work my tail end off making it a great companion for my M715. Stay Tuned and if you have any parts or anything you think I might need please feel free to PM me or message in this thread I may not need what you have but someone else reading might.

I forgot the data tag on the U.S.M.C. tub it reads:
Model MZ-2
Mobile Radio and Transmitting and Receiving Equipment
Serial 3418
Equipment Consist of Accessories and Following
1. CND - 10182-B Reconnaissance Car
1. Model TCS Series Radio Trans. & Rec Equipt
1. ------ 66118 Antenna Assembly
__________________________________
Navy Department
Bureau of Ships
______________
Willy's Overland Motor Inc
Toledo Ohio U.S.A.
Contract NXst 53300

Thanks for the write up! The M38 looks like it has lots of potential. Too bad the USMC MZ-2 is so skunky, that would be a neat unit. You can see where the belt from the PTO came up through the floor to drive the big generator for the radio set, and all the extra holes in the rear floor for the radios. If you don't want the white wagon wheels or the combat wheels, I am interested!

The "Daisey Duke" rims are gone as soon as I can get them off, right now they are of some use, as soon as they aren't we can work something out. There are only 3 of them not sure if that makes a difference, the combat rims I'm not sure what I'm going to do with yet. After reading about the MZ-2 that you pointed out I might try to fix it and those rims might be going under it. That's gonna be a lot of work I might end up using the frame currently under the M38 it might not be correct but who's gonna know but a few people looking close enough? I've been talking with WesK over at WillysMJeep.com trying to sort out what a D.O.D. might be on it with only limited info. He is an amazing guy he knows his stuff that's for sure. Anyone into a M38 resto should head over there and take a look at his photo albums just about everything you can think of is in there and he has it all labeled so even I can learn from it.

looks good. Lots of nice parts. The transfer case in the m38 frame is not correct.

Lovely, So spicer didn't make the tranfer case? I haven't looked into much yet since I've been so busy at work. My boss seems to think that working 6 days a week is a good thing lol. It's not hard to think the tranny was put onto the cj frame with the engine so it might still "be here" just won't know till i pull off the m38 tub to find out I guess, I plan to start more work asap, but work comes first. One thing is for sure I have my work cut out for me and after talking to WesK over at WillysMJeep.com I have more work then even I know. Since saving the MZ-2 tub is going to be in my future also. But top on the list is making the M38 as pretty as I can. Bill if there is any pointers you might have I'd love to here it. I'm still learning......

Everything that I'm seeing online says the T90 was the correct transmission and the spicer transfer case every picture I can find of the trans looks like mine is there something your seeing that I'm not maybe? Here are a few close ups:

Man Zout you come on by anytime and you can show this wet behind the ears rookie anything you want. I love this jeep and this hobby but man I never felt so out of my depths. She needs a lot of love and I'm gonna spend a lot of time on this. I'm no where near Commander Warp speed on knowledge or tools but I'm gonna get it done. Since I'm having to store it in a place with no power there isn't much I can do but tear it down and bring the parts I can home a piece at a time. So today the grill came home with me and I plan to get to work on it tomorrow. It's got a lot of paint on it and a bend in the mid lower part so I'm going to try and straighten that out then I'm going to get it into primer and move on to the next part. It's going to be a hit and miss build to start off with till I get into my own place. I'm waiting on my friend Phil he has a cherry picker I'm going to borrow to get the tranny off the frame and I'll get to work on that too. So since I'm waiting might was well do what I can

The transfer case is from an mb or a gpw. You can tell my the e-brake.

Hmmmm interesting now I'm curious as to what's under the m38 now

I thought the E-brake looked like this on the MB
With the grooves in it.....

So here is my first days efforts I only had a few hours to work before I had to go to work at my job. But I was able to get the front grill pulled apart and sanded down most of it, I was also able to pull out the bend that was in it. Still have some work to do on the back side but it's coming along.

The one with the groves in it is found in cj's and the m38 jeeps, MB/gpw/m38a1 all used an drum with an external band. I can tell it is not an m38a1 transfer case because of the vent behind the shifters. The m38a1 transfer case would be set up for a fording line to come of the breather.

This is going to be a lot of work! I bet you will be super proud when you get it all done though. Looking forward to following your work.